I have no basis for an opinion here. I just wanted to say that OOO was the shit. The amount of time guys like Obscuro and Laz and Marco put into these things ,with no hope of meaningful finacial gain, is truly amazing. In ES4 I ran OOO along with Mart's Monster Mod. Absolutely and completely transformed the experience.

Excellent point you raised grim. None of this would be possible if it weren't for the knowledge, vision, and dedication of these fine folks. For this I sincerely thank all those who have spent significant portions of their lives' bettering our entertainment experiences.

I look forward to the next iteration of Apocolypse! The utility spells have been a core element of my playstyle. I'll wait for the new version to start a 2nd character which I intend to be a more full on mage.

I want to update this topic to describe how the mods have been playing out to help others looking for a similar experience and to better illustrate what I am looking for in Skyrim. First I'll list the gameplay mods I utilize NOTE these are not in load order. I leave that to you:1. Skyrim Redone (no combat module or ai module)2. ASIS3.Deadly Combat4.ACE (archery, armor, BYOG[no current changes], enchanting, magic, melee, smithing, speech, synergy)5. Civil War Overhaul - makes for immensely enjoyable and challenging battles with other mods/settings6. Dragon Combat Overhaul7. Arrow Tweaks - I use this for the arrow progression with 100% enhances arrow damage (not total bow damage, this is arrow only!)8. Several UI tools to fully disable crosshair, sneak and standard!9. Apocalypse spells10. Better magic11. Level Uncapper due to perk requirements as high as level 140. Note that I have not adjusted perk gain/level rate or anything else that could provide an advantage. Nor have I surpassed level 100 in any skills yet, though am on the precipice of for several. Will set skill level cap at 150 and 200 to see how things play. May well revert to 100 if it overpowers me.

All other mods I utilize do not directly influence gameplay and are essentially fluff.

Note that all the following experience is on Master difficulty.

My playstyle focuses entirely on bow combat with other skills providing the utility needed to succeed in the environment created. I have focused heavily on alchemy and utilize magic frequently for support purposes. I operate exclusively in light armor. Due to relying on bows I very rarely block. I do keep a shield in inventory to protect myself from archers on highground who have quite the propensity to land utterly fatal headshots on me. In such cases I position the shield to cover my head and absorb some of the shot.

Humanoid enemies are capable of 1 shot killing me situationaly. If I am hit in melee from behind I am almost certainly dead. Large weapons and higher tier humanoids can 1 to 2 shot me if I don't stack every form of armor and DR possible. If I fully stack DR from enchants/potions/spells I can take 2-5 melee hits unless I'm hit in the head/from behind/from a very powerful enemy in which case I'll typically survive one hit.

Enemy archers lead to very tense engagements. I am always at risk of being 1 shot head shot killed. However if I stack some additional mitigation (protect humans/heavy helmet/fortify light armor potion/armor bonus ala Oakflesh/ etc) I can survive a headshot from most archers with a sliver of health. Heavily stacked against average tier archers and receiving non-headshots I can withstand ~2 arrows.

Mages vary a lot in how dangerous they are to me. Some magic damage spell dual wielders are capable of 1-shotting me without stacking some mitigation. Resist magic/resist element potions are the only somewhat safe way of engaging the more competent mages found in Skyrim. Resist element enchanted armors are sometimes employed alongside these measures, such as situations evolving multiple higher tier mages. The average mage engagement is not that frequently lethal to me as my archery focused playstyle combined with various potions and poisons give me enough tools to counter them and survive. They can prove resource draining fights however! In support of other types of combat units they prove quite threatening and provide excellent support to their forces.

Dragons can kill me in one to one and a half sustained breaths or well connecting melee strike if I don't utilize potions. These encounters almost always force me to use fire/ice resist potions and I keep some enchanted fire/ice resistance gear to further mitigate. If I am adequately prepared a single dragon doesn't typically kill me. They do consume my resources heavily, force me to a strategic position less I do get slaughtered, and pose immense threats in numbers or with extra aggressive actors in the area.

Despite my being very vulnerable to most non animal threats I find myself capable of dealing adequate damage, crowd control, and positioning to succeed in every situation presented thus far. I use magic and potions to mitigate damage to the most pressing threats in a situation. This provides me with enough tolerance in a given situation to avoid being 1 shot. I typically assault a position by opening with a poisoned sneak shot on the most exposed or dangerous target. I then generally utilize the spell offering 70% enhanced movement, my shield, and careful kiting to position myself in the most tactically advantageous location I can spot. This often envolves slipping, ducking, and juking my way through all the things that desire my death in the area as rapidly as possible. I try to find a location that is these 3 things: 1. High ground. 2. has some room to fallback and ideally an escape route. 3. Effective line-of-sight control. Once I have myself in position I utilize my longbow's ability to stagger and copious application of poisons to hold my ground and eliminate targets safely.

I can buff my damage up enough to kill most humanoids in 1 to several shots. Some of the real nasties and very heavily armored are definitely more resistant. Headshots, fortify marksman potions, enchantments, poisons, and damage buffing spells provide plenty of damage output so that not a single enemy encountered yet has felt like it could survive more than would be reasonable.

The combat feels very responsive. The overall difficulty level is right about where I want it. I have to utilize most/all tools at my disposal to survive. Combat doesn't feel slow or stupid like vanilla Skyrim. There is no case of swinging a weapon for five minutes with no visible effect before something takes enough damage to decide to die. I am always at risk of death.

I have not explored melee combat or offensive magic combat extensively yet. It is possible these play styles would make the game too easy or difficult for my enjoyment, however I expect them to play similarly. Based on description Duel Combat v7 may play better than Deadly Combat in Melee. Ranged combat has proved too enjoyable for me to toy around with melee combat yet.

I highly recommend this mod combination for a more difficult and engaging experience. I have died what must be > 150 times. Might very well be my inexperience with the game. Maybe I just suck, yet I have a feeling that these mods actually make the game a real and fair challenge. Final note, these mods turn the game into what feels somewhat less RPG-y and number driven into a more skill oriented experience. If you want Skyrim to be a 3d exploration and number only driven game these will not be for you.

Your post made me remember of a rogue I had, I've named her Druna (and LATER I discovered that there's actually a band called wardruna) I made her a dark elf assassin, there was that guy that EXTREMELY inspired me, SEPHxxFORxxLIFE

It made me feel like the assassin (or, every sneaky class) is actually the only one that uses tactics, which is mostly true! So i've leveled my assassin to ~58 only to discover ( i knew it like 10 levels before tho) that because I was constantly reinstalling and installing new/deleting mods, she got extremely bugged The thing is, when I was still a big nab, I decided to install SkyRE cause the perks were utterly fun! But then I got owned by mobs so I rage-deleted it, then when I got calmed down I installed it again after a few days, and again deleted... Which was probably the thing that caused all the bugs. Now there are some stupid bandits, that I can't kill using 2 dragonbone daggers with a one-handed skill ~100 and sneak skill ~100 with a sneaky power attack in 1 shot...

There was also another girl before, a khajit assassin named Gretta. She got bugged so much that I couldn't run properly... basically there were like, mini invisible walls that disturbed my walking...